Recently came across my old manga collection (circa 2003-08) and it brought back a wave of memories.

Recently I've been fascinated about the context of releases. One of the reasons why I struggled to get into Marvel or DC was knowing where to start. It seemed like there were at least three different Spider-Man series and if you wanted to know everything you had to follow all the series in a specific order.

I doubt it was that arduous, but how did you all get into Marvel/DC/Image etc. back in the day? Was it just one series and natural curiosity? Do you ever go back and try to follow the entire Marvel Universe Reading Order?

My manga collection

One Piece Vol. 1-17 (Which takes us to March of 2008 which checks out. I can't believe they just released 30 volumes of One Piece in 2010, I would have sent myself broke.)

Black Cat Vol. 1-13 (Out of print now and some of the later volumes fetch a high price)

Death Note Vol. 1-12 (Complete)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Vol 1-7 (Complete)

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Vol. 1

Yu Yu Hakusho Vol 1, Vol 3

I want to go back and complete YYH and at least complete the Baroque Works of One Piece (Vol. 23). I see they're also releasing Deluxe Versions of the Trigun manga and they look really enticing. There's also Dragon Ball which was my introduction to Jump comics and I had a few of those single issue Viz releases from the early 00s.

However it's not just manga, I'm also considering going western. I'm keeping an eye out for one of those Mirage Turtles omnibus' but I'm not completely adverse to Marvel or DC if I can get a good price on them.

Do you guys ever shop comics on Black Friday? Scored any sweet deals?

Deadpool 3 on the plus this month. Let's go!

Big Pete, I'll do my best to answer -

While it may seem daunting to start something new with all the continuity, Marvel does a great job often restarting series. Either because there's been a signifcant change of status quo, or brand new writer/artist join the book and plan on taking it a new direction. I can't comment on DC because I don't read enough of it. But generally for Marvel, when you see a new series at #1, it's being made new reader accessible.

Are there any Marvel or DC characters you're interested in? There are a number of 12+ issue runs that are collected that tell great stories that are timeless. I can do my best to recommend!

For Image - sure there are some long-running series out there. But at the end of the day, it's all creator owned. A lot of the time, if there was a long-standing creative team that wrote a lot of stories I enjoyed with Marvel or DC, I would often blind-buy any new series at Image that they created. Give it 3-4 issues to see if it grabs me. And then if it does? You've got. There's a creative team of Brubaker and Phillips, that I buy literally everything that they make. Everything I've read is amazing, regardless of the genre.

Other times, it's buzz. Follow the correct accounts on twitter, get a couple recommendations, and then your world gets opened up. A creator I love is pimping out someone else's book? I'll give it a shot. Most Image series are short lived, the creators have a beginning, middle, and end planned out. If the sales are good, they might push the series from 24 issues to 36 or 40. But they're smaller, self contained stories. Then on to their next creative output. And that's why I love Image. Every single genre you can imagine.

For Spider-Man, I only read one book - Amazing Spider-Man. None of the others. Generally, they don't mix and mingle, and you can just read one series without needing to read the other to get the story. Occasionally they'll do a big crossover where you will need to read the other books to get the full story, but that's few a far between.

I read a lot of Marvel books. I can't imagine trying to keep up with the whole universe, way too much going on. I follow either my favourite characters (Daredevil, Dr. Strange, Iron Fist, Moon Knight), or favourite creators.

I've only read one Manga, and that was Monster. I just want to read so many more comics and do not have the time to do it. I currently have about 25 comic books and 40+ trade paperbacks that I haven't read (bit of a by-product of having a 4 week old newborn and a 3 and 6 year old who keep me extremely busy.)

With Amazing Spider-Man, did you just hop right in? Can you remember which issue?

So I've been digging through the Marvel Wiki (what an amazing resource) and I've come to the realisation that the Silver Surfer is my guy. A fallen angel going on intergalactic adventures? Sounds like my cup of tea. I noticed they recently released an issue of Silver Surfer, but I'm considering going the epic collections route and either starting with Vol 1 (his silver age introduction) or Vol. 3 (the 87 reboot).

I thought I'd start off there and then branch out into other cosmic series so if you have any recommendations that would be swell.

Big Pete

I recently got back on the Amazing Spider-Man train after being a lapsed reader for decades. I started with Amazing-Spider Man #1 (2018) with Nick Spencer as the writer. Generally that's how they differentiate with the year. I believe it went up to 93 before relaunching again.

The current Amazing Spider-Man is written by Zeb Wells (2022). It's been just ok but opinions have been all over the place. I think it's at somewhere around issue 60 now (I'm very behind). This run is ending very soon and a new one called 8 deaths of Spider-Man is starting. Maybe that's a good place to jump on?

I've read so little Silver Surfer. But one I can recommend is Dan Slott and Mike Allreds Surfer series (2014).

Generally Marvel's Cosmic books have been lacking. That's why I read Green Lantern! There's some decent Guardians of the galaxy books but otherwise I mostly stay away, outside of the rare Silver Surfer story.

That's all useful information, thanks for all the advice. I hadn't considered Lantern, but his adventures sound appealing.

How do fans have so much knowledge on the history of Marvel if they only jump into contemporary releases? Take the Clone Saga for instance, didn't it originally take place in the 70s? I'm sure there's other examples - are newer fans just relying on what they read online or is it common practice to buy the old trade paperbacks/omnibus'?

A new Young Avengers (comic book) series launches next year.

comicbook.com/marvel/news/marvel-young-avengers-2025-confirmed/

Big Pete I'd say there's been a genuine shift in the past 25 years or so to move away from any kind of heavy continuity stories by Marvel. If it's something that's extremely relevant, they'll provide a bit of history in the one page recap at the start of the comic.

At the end of the day the editorial team realized that they can't keep telling the heavy continuity stories because it's not new reader friendly. That's why there's constantly new #1 issues. To appease the long term fanbase the comics get a secondary number for the legacy numbering so while it's a new #1, it's actually issues number 938 of Amazing Spider-Man.

At the end of the day, just jump in with a new number one. Everything you'll need to know will be shared within first few pages

Big Pete, if your looking for a Spider-Man book to check out, I would recommend the newest Ultimate Spider-Man series from Hickman. It launched earlier this year, and is currently only ten issues in, so far I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

Also, also just noticed @ness account is deleted... that's disappointing.

Nov 8, 2024 23:31:05 GMT Lony said:

Big Pete , if your looking for a Spider-Man book to check out, I would recommend the newest Ultimate Spider-Man series from Hickman. It launched earlier this year, and is currently only ten issues in, so far I've been enjoying it quite a bit.

Thanks, I'll keep an eye out.

Well it finally happened. I bought my first graphic novel as an adult - this is what arrived in the mail:

I loved the Trigun anime and always wanted to delve deeper into the manga. This collects the first two volumes of the manga. My brother actually had the first volume of the manga, but I always presumed it was a short-lived series that was hastily adapted into an anime and whatever came after was merely fan fiction. That's because after the second volume, the title changes to Trigun Maximum and I presumed it was a separate series. What actually happened is that the original Trigun publication went bust and the series changed hands - to reflect the change they renamed the series.

What I loved about Trigun was it's mish mash of genres. It's a steam-punk space western told from the perspective of two insurance field agents who follow the Humanoid Typhoon, Vash the Stampede. The man with a $$60,000,0000,000 who despite his reputation is a complete and utter goofball pacifist who seems to survive by sheer luck. However as the story unfolds, we learn there's more to Vash and his past is about to catch up with him.

Just doing a quick flip through of the book, it appears that it covers 2/3s of the anime. However, we still have five deluxe editions to go, so I'm excited to see what follows.

--------------------------------------------------

Outside of that, I noticed my local comic book shop has a YouTube channel with regular updates so it's cool to put some names to faces and they seem like good lads. They have this program where you can pre-order comics at a nice discount (30-40% off). I was wondering if this is common practice, or just something I have to be mindful of since Australia international shipping prices are ridiculous.

One of us. One of us.

Upcoming Comic Books (November 13th)

Dark Horse Comics: gocollect.com/blog/comiclist-dark-horse-comics-new-releases-for-11132024
DC Comics: gocollect.com/blog/comiclist-dc-comics-new-releases-for-11132024
IDW Comics: gocollect.com/blog/comiclist-idw-publishing-new-releases-for-11132024
Image Comics: gocollect.com/blog/comiclist-image-comics-new-releases-for-11132024
Marvel + Other Comic Books: www.previewsworld.com/NewReleases/Export?format=txt&releaseDate=11/13/2024

Foos, whatcha reading this week?

Anyway, here is what I'll be reading...

Marvel Comics
Amazing Spider-Man #61
Psylocke #1
Uncanny X-Men #5
Venom #39

"The Eight Deaths of Spider-Man" story arc officially begins with the newest issue of Amazing Spider-Man. On the Uncanny X-Men side of things, the "Red Wave" arc wraps up.

Lony I haven't read anything for 5 weeks since Foos IV was born. I picked up my comics once with Foos Jr and Foos III, and am still downloading. Currently just surviving these days. I will read it all...eventually! Maybe bring some books to work and read a few here and there. I do miss reading before bed.

What's been good lately? What's this new Spider-Man story about?

Foos be buying:

GIJOE #1
TRANSFORMERS #14
WYND THE POWER OF THE BLOOD #1

HOUSE OF SLAUGHTER TP VOL 05

Foos be reading:

GREEN LANTERN #17
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #61
DEADPOOL #8
ULTIMATE X-MEN #9
UNCANNY X-MEN #5
WEREWOLF BY NIGHT RED BAND #4

How are the X books these days? Anything interesting happening?

Nov 14, 2024 0:21:48 GMT iron maiden said:

How are the X books these days? Anything interesting happening?

No. They're so boring and dull compared to the Krakoan age. I'm so disappointed in them. Krakoan age made me a fan of the X-Men. The current books are undoing my fandom and I'll probably stop caring about the XTitles again in the near future. Shame. 

I'm a few issues behind on Ultimate X-Men*, but I haven't been digging it. I do like Uncanny X-Men, for what it is, I guess, could be better could be worse. As far as the Ultimate books go, unsurprisingly Ultimate Spider-Man has been my favorite so far.

I would rank them as (from what I've read)...

1. Ultimate Spider-Man
2. The Ultimates
3. Ultimate X-Men

Just picked up the second deluxe edition of Trigun.

So something that might throw off newer readers, the second edition is actually Vol. 1 of Trigun Maximum. I touched on it earlier how the original publishers went bust and this was just a way to continue the series but I didn't realise it became a far more graphic series afterwards.

Essentially it went from an M to an MA/R.

The first deluxe edition was largely 1:1 with the anime with a few minor alterations. There's still some cross-over, but the manga zigs where the anime zags in certain chapters so I'm looking forward to that. The third deluxe edition just arrived last week and they're doing another monthly release before they space out the fifth (February) and sixth (June) editions.

Outside of that, I've just been flicking through some Spider-Man and TMNT. I can't get over how good the art looks in modern comics. I made the mistake of going back to some old TMNT Adventure comics and it looked like stick figures in comparison to the newer stuff. Old school TMNT Adventures was some wild stuff - it was more like an Earthworm Jim comic in that you had floating cow heads that had the ability to transport through time and galaxies. The IDW comics by comparison are amazing and it feels like a missing piece of my childhood is being filled.

Great time to pick up TMNT with the recent relaunch.

I finally got around to reading the last issue (#10) of Ultimate Spider-Man, Jonathan Hickman has been doing great things with this run. I'm loving the hell out of the Ben Parker/J. Jonah Jameson relationship, not to mention Peter and the whole family dynamic with Mary Jane and the kids as well. Seriously, this just might be my favorite on-going comic. The OG Ultimate Spider-Man series (from Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley), was one of the first comic book series, I started collecting when I got into reading comic books. This new series, has me excited for the future, and I can't wait, to see what they have in-store as far as the new Ultimate Spider-Man series goes.

Psylocke #1 was pretty enjoyable stuff as well, I'll def have to continue reading that.

ONE LINK

gocollect.com/blog/comiclist-new-comic-book-releases-list-for-11202024-1-week-out

Action Comics #1076 (Cover A Clayton Henry), $4.99
Batman And Robin Year One #2 (Of 12)(Cover A Chris Samnee), $3.99
Batman Full Moon #2 (Of 4)(Cover A Stevan Subic Glow-In-The-Dark Variant), $5.99
Catwoman #70 (Cover A Sebastian Fiumara), $3.99
Question All Along The Watchtower #1 (Of 6)(Cover A Cian Tormey), $3.99
Titans #17 (Cover A Pete Woods), $3.99
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles x Naruto #1 (Cover A Jorge Jimenez), $4.99
Chasm Curse Of Kaine #4 (Of 4)(Cover A Mark Bagley), $3.99
Daredevil #15 (Cover A John Romita Jr.), AR
Sentinels #2 (Of 5)(Cover A Justin Mason), $3.99
Ultimate Spider-Man #11 (Cover A Marco Checchetto), $4.99
Venom War It's Jeff #1 (Cover A Gurihiru), $4.99

Here's stuff I may or may not read.

Is it really you?

oh man cheesedude420, System is gonna be so stoked that you finally joined the boards!

Welcome to PW! Do you read comic books?

Nov 19, 2024 1:51:42 GMT Big Pete said:

Is it really you?

This week, I got...

DC Comics
Titans #17

Marvel Comics
Avengers Assemble #3 (of #5)
Daredevil #15
Exceptional X-Men #3
Scarlet Witch #6
Ultimate Spider-Man #11
Wolverine #3

cheesedude420, how are you liking Ultimate Spider-Man?

Nov 21, 2024 0:45:59 GMT Lony said:

cheesedude420 , how are you liking Ultimate Spider-Man?

The only Ultimate reboot title I'm following. Like it well enough, feels unique enough that it feels fresh.

Read some comics at work this week. Finally caught up with the Energon Universe. Read Void Rivals, finished Scarlett, Destro and caught up with Transformers. Then read GiJoe #1. Oh mama this is such great comics for 40+ year old men 😁😁

gocollect.com/blog/comiclist-new-comic-book-releases-list-for-11272024-1-week-out

Absolute Wonder Woman #2 (Cover A Hayden Sherman), $4.99
Batman Santa Claus Silent Knight Returns #1 (Of 5)(Cover A Bernard Chang), $3.99
Batman The Brave And The Bold #19 (Cover A Simone Di Meo), $7.99
Batman The Long Halloween The Last Halloween #3 (Of 10)(Cover A Tim Sale), $4.99
Black Canary Best Of The Best #1 (Of 6)(Cover A Ryan Sook), $4.99
Detective Comics #1091 (Cover A Mikel Janin), $4.99
Green Arrow #18 (Cover A Taurin Clarke), $3.99
Harley Quinn #45 (Cover A Elizabeth Torque), $3.99
Justice League Unlimited #1 (Cover A Dan Mora), $3.99
Multiversus Collision Detected #6 (Of 6)(Cover A Dan Mora), $4.99
Nightwing #120 (Cover A Dexter Soy), $4.99
Superman #20 (Cover A Dan Mora), $4.99
Red Sonja Volume 7 #16 (Cover A Lucio Parrillo), $4.99
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #4 (2024)(Cover A Rafael Albuquerque), $4.99
Amazing Spider-Man #62 (Cover A Ed McGuinness), $4.99
Mystique #2 (Of 5)(Cover A Declan Shalvey), $3.99
Venom War #5 (Of 5)(Cover A Iban Coello), $4.99
West Coast Avengers #1 (Cover A Ben Harvey), $4.99

Gonna be honest I really haven't bene feeling the Absolute lineup other than Batman. Haven't paid attention to any of the Venom stuff since it became more than the occasional semi annual mini. I didn't even finish the Knull guy's crossover. But gonna look and see what this finale is aboot.

DC Comics
Justice League Unlimited #1
Nightwing #120

Marvel Comics
Amazing Spider-Man #62
Uncanny X-Men #6
West Coast Avengers #1